Music rights group calls new talks with YouTube 'positive'

A day after YouTube announced the Google-owned video site would no longer stream music videos within the United Kingdom, the Performance Right Society said talks on Tuesday between the group and YouTube were "positive."

PRS collects royalties on behalf of the music industry in the U.K. On Monday, YouTube announced that the Web's largest video site and the collections agency couldn't reach a deal on licensing fees. Talks continue and the parties are scheduled to meet over the next few days, according to a PRS statement.

"We are committed to ensuring our 60,000 songwriter and composer members receive a fair deal and that U.K. consumers continue to enjoy music videos on YouTube," the PRS said.

YouTube said in a statement on Monday that the "costs the PRS...are proposing we pay are simply prohibitive for us. Under PRS' proposed terms we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback."

Apparently, the PRS is not operating from any kind of shortfall.

In January, Film Music Magazine reported that PRS had a good year in 2008. The group announced that it took in $849.6 million (600 million British pounds) in royalties for U.K. songwriters, composers and music publishers.

That number represented 8 percent, growth from the previous year and was also the first time the organization's annual revenue topped 600 million pounds.

Some of the group's tactics collecting royalties have been criticized. The PRS has allegedly called merchants to hear if they have music playing in their stores. If the stores are playing songs, the group demands payment.